Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[don_budge]

"Thoughts about Tennis Tradition..." over 13,000 views. The conversation was not restricted to tennis. There was a poster who apparently objected to my writing about other things other than tennis but it seems that the post has since been deleted. Oh well...you can't please everybody.

I started this thread on May 20, 2011. I was fairly new to the forum and I wasn't greeted by exactly open arms either. I may have ruffled a few feathers. Afterall...tradition is a bad words nowadays. Even referring to trying to resurrect a certain country to a former status is taboo in many places. Not sure about the forum these days. I am very careful to not actually spell it out. I have two strikes you know. I'm walking on egg shells.

The tennis these days? Terribly boring. The forum these days? Well...there is the Big Three. The ATP Finals thread got 45 posts and all by the Big Three. Well, well...you can't please everyone. You can't point out the obvious either. Not with two strikes. I threw a soft ball at a poster. Then I was muzzled. Jannik Sinner is as boring as it gets. He tested positive twice for a banned substance...it was more or less swept under the rug. Christmas approaching on the radar screen. Even that tradition is slowly being eradicated. Tennis metaphoring life. What a great thread this was. Thirteen years..13,000 views. Three a day? That's quite a few. I haven't really written much the past couple of years. Ever since Roger left the stadium. It was a great run. Sort of nostalgic now.

I returned to the little tennis club in Skultorp, Sweden the other day. The guys were going to play a match and invited me to come and watch. It turned out that it was cancelled. The other team didn't show. So the four guys were practicing. They greeted me with a sort of an awestruck look. Almost exaggerated respect. I have come to expect that from them. Great kids. No longer kids though. Two of them have taken over much of the training hours at the club. I couldn't be prouder. Happy too. To think I did all that. Not in a shy way either.

It appears that one of the very top leading ladies in Women's tennis has been suspended for suspected drug infractions. Is there a double standard here? Let me tell you something...there is. There always is. It all depends on who you know or how much you have. It's largely political and therefore forbidden to discuss. So I won't. Not at all. Politics are expressly forbidden to discuss here on the. forum. Except they are related to tennis in this case. So it might not be forbidden. The discussion is so limited these days it is hard to tell if it is voluntary or something else. Sinner seems to have skated any penalty. Even though...oh well. This is how these things go. Innocent until proven guilty. Or hearsay, rumors and innuendo. Backstabbing. It's all in the game. Did you know that William Tilden II wrote a book called "It's All in the Game". I did. I have it on my shelf here in Sweden. Brought it from America. The land of the free and the brave. It's a decent book. Of interest to true tennis connoisseurs. Probably of little or no interest to modern day tennis aficionados. But a true student of the game would find it fascinating...as I do.

[don_budge]

"Thoughts about Tennis Tradition..." over 13,000 views. The conversation was not restricted to tennis. There was a poster who apparently objected to my writing about other things other than tennis but it seems that the post has since been deleted. Oh well...you can't please everybody.

I started this thread on May 20, 2011. I was fairly new to the forum and I wasn't greeted by exactly open arms either. I may have ruffled a few feathers. Afterall...tradition is a bad words nowadays. Even referring to trying to resurrect a certain country to a former status is taboo in many places. Not sure about the forum these days. I am very careful to not actually spell it out. I have two strikes you know. I'm walking on egg shells.

The tennis these days? Terribly boring. The forum these days? Well...there is the Big Three. The ATP Finals thread got 45 posts and all by the Big Three. Well, well...you can't please everyone. You can't point out the obvious either. Not with two strikes. I threw a soft ball at a poster. Then I was muzzled. Jannik Sinner is as boring as it gets. He tested positive twice for a banned substance...it was more or less swept under the rug. Christmas approaching on the radar screen. Even that tradition is slowly being eradicated. Tennis metaphoring life. What a great thread this was. Thirteen years..13,000 views. Three a day? That's quite a few. I haven't really written much the past couple of years. Ever since Roger left the stadium. It was a great run. Sort of nostalgic now.

I returned to the little tennis club in Skultorp, Sweden the other day. The guys were going to play a match and invited me to come and watch. It turned out that it was cancelled. The other team didn't show. So the four guys were practicing. They greeted me with a sort of an awestruck look. Almost exaggerated respect. I have come to expect that from them. Great kids. No longer kids though. Two of them have taken over much of the training hours at the club. I couldn't be prouder. Happy too. To think I did all that. Not in a shy way either.

[don_budge]

Well...enough said.

[don_budge]

I am really impressed with that NAVARRO gal! Big match coming up for her next.

[don_budge]

Unbelievable...managed to login after about eight weeks of not being able to. I wasn't able to make any of the modifications that Jeffrey Counts came up with. But here I am. Back on the forum. By the way...the tennis is tanking. Drug test scandal with the number one seed in the men's draw at the U. S. Open. Carlos Alcarez disappeared by a virtual unknown. Novak in the driver's seat now. On paper. I watched about five minutes of Sinner yesterday with the wife. Bored to tears in no time. All in all...just happy to be able to login. Handicap down to 3.3. The only thing this old world understands is hard work. That's my message.

[don_budge]

Hole in one Monday here in Sweden at the Knistad Golf and Country Club today! Five iron on the 13th hole, a 180 yard par 3...straight on the flag and rolled into the hole. It was fluid, absence of effort and poetry in motion.

Double bogey on the same hole Tuesday. Perhaps the worst tee shot ever on that hole...behind a bunker. Attempt over the bunker came up short of the green and rolled into the bunker. Bunker shot short of the green. One chip and one putt. Double bogey five. So it goes. Golf is a cruel game. So is tennis.

As I was laying in bed, I was thinking. What kind of person plays these two games? Psychology Today analyzed tennis and golf thusly; in tennis the racquets symbolize swords and the balls the contestants testicles. The players are trying to castrate each other. Nowadays this analogy seems to be a bit dated as the players using the oversized racquets are more bludgeoning each other than surgically removing the family jewels. But in yesteryear...the parry and thrust was much more apparent. Each going viscerally at each others weakness. The analogy of golf was trying to avoid committing suicide.

What kind of person is so mean and so cruel that he thoroughly loves and enjoys castrating his opponents? What kind of person can face the prospect of potentially committing suicide routinely on the golf course? The thought that I so passionately loved both sports gave me a start. I spent the night in a restless moral dilemma. The sting of the double bogey fresh in my mind. When I aced the hole on Monday, I felt virtually nothing about the result. What I did feel was what doctorhl wrote..."the pursuit of fluidity, absence of effort, poetry in motion". Although my partners both were celebrating and offering me the obligatory high fives...I felt nothing. No joy. Just grim satisfaction of a good swing. I knew that this sort of success is short lived in golf. Something will always come along to even things up. That is...until you master the game. Until you master yourself.

So it goes. I wonder how much longer I can tolerate this reality. This constant masochism. Self mutilation. I'm too old for this...or am I? I think the answer lies somehow in not caring. To divorce yourself of all anticipation and retrospect. Simply staying in the moment. Accepting. The good and the bad. It's a terrible struggle. Recently a PGA professional who was enjoying some rather good level of success committed suicide. Fulfilling the Psychology Today prophecy. Another female professional is retiring somewhat prematurely citing the cruelty of the game. The hard work. The limited rewards coupled with high expectations. I couldn't imagine playing either sport for a living. Your very existence based on your ability to survive on a day to day basis in such a competitive occupation. Cruel games.

So I played the same hole twice and averaged par for both days. Six shots for two times played. A measly par three, yet the highs and lows both taking their toll on my fragile psyche. The one thing that I did do as I was leaving the green when I hit the hole and one...I looked up at the sky and said, "thank you Lord, thank you Jesus". It was an act of God and nothing about my ability or skill set. It was either fate or just a coincidence. As luck would have it.

Today I am playing a match for my club. The Knistad Golf and Country Club here in Sweden. At seventy years old I should be playing in the seventy and over team but I chose to play on the sixty and over team. An aquaintance said to me when I told him that..."making it harder on yourself". I said, "no, I am making it harder on the younger guys". I am in the top three in scoring over the course of our matches. But there isn't a shred of satisfaction. Only greed. Greedily wanting to be more perfect...or less flawed. All in all...a complete waste of time in the big picture of the world. Completely meaningless. Yet somehow...it helps me to cope. It lifts me up for a moment only to cruelly beat me down. I guess I can take it. Just to live to play another day.

[don_budge]

Tennis to golf..the pursuit of fluidiity, absence of effort, poetry in motion. Some artist needs to capture the Federer metamorphosis!

Hole in one Monday here in Sweden at the Knistad Golf and Country Club today! Five iron on the 13th hole, a 180 yard par 3...straight on the flag and rolled into the hole. It was fluid, absence of effort and poetry in motion.

[doctorhl]

Tennis to golf..the pursuit of fluidiity, absence of effort, poetry in motion. Some artist needs to capture the Federer metamorphosis!

[don_budge]

The Roger Federer Golf Swing...

While the French Open limps on...incredibly boring. Unwatchable. Without the rivalries of Roger and the other members of the "Big Four" the game has done exactly what I predicted it would do. It tanked. For years I said that when he leaves the game there will be a huge sucking sound like the air leaving a balloon. Even the interest in this forum has tanked. One wonders where the bottom is.

Roger makes one of the better decisions in life. He has picked up golf. At 42 years old he has picked up the game of golf. Technically he may have picked up earlier. I picked it up at the age of forty. Obvioiusly he has all of the resources that money can buy at this point in life. This is more interesting to me than anything currently happening on the ATP tour. It has turned into a real snooze fest.

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/golf-pros-react-to-roger-federer-viral-golf-swing-nelly-korda-adam-scott-liv-golf?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=golfdigest&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1nta2QnEfNiFSMPVN7ZE7RnT3WdJPU-HVfFCdRTO4n34rAKAlWT6at3eY_aem_AS1z3EJDP2ozKvzukX3NEGB9XUCwyFFkgJlbIHICHQN-hw5iXNd3n2j1SFKP76jPVaSk1oGIxgMtoVEaUBxCfKZZ

[don_budge]

2023 ATP Tour Finals...blah, blah, blah

If you ask me...this has been a real snoozer. I'm not referring to the heroic efforts of our "big 3" posters in this thread that are averaging way south of three views per posts. Masters of the one or two liners. Lots of just completely meaningless stats. No real opinions. No original thought. Lots of agreeing. No...this tournament is a real bust. It used to cause quite a sensation too. The difference...a lack of Roger Federer. The post Federer era of tennis...listen. You can hear it. It sounds like the air escaping from the balloon. A sucking sound only found in the queerest of all vacuums. This is a strange one. I predicted it and sure enough...right on cue. Tennis as we used to know it is down the tubes. Coming soon...the Post Modern Era of Tennis.

Case in point...one Stefanos Tsitsipas. One day he is proclaiming that this tournament is bigger than a Grand Slam. The next he is retiring after a mere four games into a match leaving the paying public high and dry. So much for chivalry. It's dead too. So is the sport. It is hard to write about anything because it all so dreadfully boring. Hear that...it is the sound of one hand clapping. When this tournament is over, they are going to turn the lights out in the stadium and there will be one old guy left there sitting asking himself...who cares?

Sinner the saviour? Hardly. The guy's picture in the dictionary is under the word...boring. Novak is the only thing that is the slightest bit compelling. The only thing. This thread is filled with a bunch of meaningless stats which are jibberish. They hardly mean anything...yet that is all there is to say about the matches. Yawn...it's like some sort of exhibition. I remember writing about these matches during Roger's career. A different animal. Completely.

Let's hope that Novak pins the ears back on the latest and the greatest...Jannik Sinner. Look how Carlos Alvarez has sort of leveled out in the equation. Novak answered that question. It was rumored that Novak was training with Alvarez in Paris. It seemed like a nice gesture on his part. Don't underestimate Djokovic...Mr. Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck. He was measuring the kid. Looking here and there for a little sign of weakness to exploit when it counted. It counted yesterday. I said a while back...Novak's experience is the trump card until it isn't. You have to take his legs out from under him. That is the challenge for Sinner today. If Sinner wins it will be the end of tennis. Pure and simple. It will be over and the lonely old guy will just get up and leave...shutting out the lights on the way out.

Novak Djokovic's experience is the Trump card until it isn't. Pinned the ears back on Jannik Sinner. You read it here. Opinionated? Yes. Never agreeing or disagreeing. Just call it like you see it and explain to the best of your ability. The two young wannabee's came up way short. All of the hoping that the next generation is going to be enough...those hopes are dashed. The writing is on the wall. Tennis is dead in the water. Boring...boring...boring. Novak is the end of the line. Greatest player of all time? Not at all. Big racquets. Lack of depth in the field. The proof is where the game is at. A 36 year old is head and shoulders over the entire field. A 36 year old who would be cat food for half of the draw in 1980 on a slick grass court. Fast hard courts. What does that tell you? Wake up. Eyes that do not see. Roger Federer was the Living Proof.

[don_budge]

2023 ATP Tour Finals...blah, blah, blah

If you ask me...this has been a real snoozer. I'm not referring to the heroic efforts of our "big 3" posters in this thread that are averaging way south of three views per posts. Masters of the one or two liners. Lots of just completely meaningless stats. No real opinions. No original thought. Lots of agreeing. No...this tournament is a real bust. It used to cause quite a sensation too. The difference...a lack of Roger Federer. The post Federer era of tennis...listen. You can hear it. It sounds like the air escaping from the balloon. A sucking sound only found in the queerest of all vacuums. This is a strange one. I predicted it and sure enough...right on cue. Tennis as we used to know it is down the tubes. Coming soon...the Post Modern Era of Tennis.

Case in point...one Stefanos Tsitsipas. One day he is proclaiming that this tournament is bigger than a Grand Slam. The next he is retiring after a mere four games into a match leaving the paying public high and dry. So much for chivalry. It's dead too. So is the sport. It is hard to write about anything because it all so dreadfully boring. Hear that...it is the sound of one hand clapping. When this tournament is over, they are going to turn the lights out in the stadium and there will be one old guy left there sitting asking himself...who cares?

Sinner the saviour? Hardly. The guy's picture in the dictionary is under the word...boring. Novak is the only thing that is the slightest bit compelling. The only thing. This thread is filled with a bunch of meaningless stats which are jibberish. They hardly mean anything...yet that is all there is to say about the matches. Yawn...it's like some sort of exhibition. I remember writing about these matches during Roger's career. A different animal. Completely.

Let's hope that Novak pins the ears back on the latest and the greatest...Jannik Sinner. Look how Carlos Alvarez has sort of leveled out in the equation. Novak answered that question. It was rumored that Novak was training with Alvarez in Paris. It seemed like a nice gesture on his part. Don't underestimate Djokovic...Mr. Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck. He was measuring the kid. Looking here and there for a little sign of weakness to exploit when it counted. It counted yesterday. I said a while back...Novak's experience is the trump card until it isn't. You have to take his legs out from under him. That is the challenge for Sinner today. If Sinner wins it will be the end of tennis. Pure and simple. It will be over and the lonely old guy will just get up and leave...shutting out the lights on the way out.

[don_budge]

Speaking of manning up...another classic Novak Djokovic performance. Joke 'em if they can't take a fuck. The reverse of the original saying...courtesy of none other than don_budge. But joke them he does. Novak has been struggling with his physical well being all week if the reports are true that I have read. The back thing a new twist tonight. But from some accounts he has had some kind of "stomach" bug which has had him putting in some overtime sitting on the toilet. Was that a nice way of putting it? Rublev, a man without a flag, did what he could to put pressure and maintain it, but Novak is the ever elusive, hard to bag prey. He is as slippery as a Houdini in ordinary handcuffs.

Perhaps the single most aspect of a Novak Djokovic reign as the best tennis player in the world and certainly one of the best over the past how many years is Darwinian. In the Darwin paradigm of the survival of the fittest...it is not the strongest or even the smartest that is bound to survive, it is the one that adapts the best. No matter what the circumstances, Djokovic is never out of any given match from beginning to end. So many miraculous escapes. Make it two more in a row as he took out Hoger Rune after Rune threatened to overturn Novak's apple cart last night. It was Rublev tonight, who again was in the driver's seat for a good part of the match but ended up playing second fiddle when it came to the end. Novak extricated himself from another dicey situation. He always looks so comfortable doing it. He does it different ways...but many times there is this factor that he looks to be on the verge of going down. But somehow...well, you know the rest.

[don_budge]

This match between Dimitrov and Medvedev hinges on a tie-breaker. John McEnroe always felt that the better serve had the advantage.

Grigor Dimitrov played an exceptionally intelligent (read tactical) match against the exceptionally talented tactically speaking Daniil Medvedev. The margin of victory was slim and I'm going to highlight the judicious use of the slice backhand right up there in the things that swung the match to Dimitrov. So many slices and so many times he refused to give Medvedev the shot he preferred to play. Right out of the book of Bill Tilden..."never give your opponent the shot he prefers to play".

Then there was Bublik...and then there was Hurkacz...and now it Tsitsipas. What is the best thing to have in tennis in the post Roger Federer era? Clearly for the moment it is Baby Fed. Baby Fed it has been all week...all grown up. Man up and taking the bull by the horns. Exceptional tactics individually devised based on each opponent. Very, very clever combination of matches and tactics.

I'll tell you one thing about Grigor, I remember when I gave him the nickname "The Bulgarian Playboy", I watched quite a lot of him this week. Not like I would watch the original. But I kept tabs on him. Dimitrov acts and behaves himself along the same lines as the original. As Roger. No crazy displays of celebration after points. Even when he won a key point his reaction is a pretty simple clench of the fist and a subtle pump. No wide open mouth. No primal screams. No monkey faces and no monkey business. A bit of a blast from the past. Respect.

Baby Fed. Yeah...why not? He really lived up to it this week.

[don_budge]

This match between Dimitrov and Medvedev hinges on a tie-breaker. John McEnroe always felt that the better serve had the advantage.

[don_budge]

2023 Rolex Paris Masters...ATP 1000...Paris, France (first round Cat Food)

Geez...right out of the gates. "Gentle Ben" Shelton and Christopher Eubanks go down in a hail of withing heat in the first round. Both tough losses. Three setters. Oh well boys...it's a tough world. Yesterday's news is today's loser of the day. Both players accumulating a ton of expectations. By now the reality of the deal has hit home with Eubanks as he will have to wait for the grass court seaons to create any more positive headlines. Ben will have to get his legs back under him all the while trying to pull his head out of his butt with all of the social media hype. No easy task. Ask Jannik Sinner. Ask Felix Auger-Aliassime. Ask Holger Rune. Ask Caspar Ruud. All searching and seeking a semblance of consistency. Sinner has been through the entire rigamorol now. He is just beginning to get a handle on it. But look for more falls. Always the ups and downs. Cat food. First round loser. The world doesn't owe you a damned thing and there is no better way to learn this than the food chain of tennis competition.

Every draw sheet tells a story. Now...in the preliminaries. The foreplay. It is all about the hopes and dashing of hopes. There is always next week you can say to yourself. But it seems like an eternity away and there are no guarentees. A tough road to hoe. As the week goes on the story develops. First round is just window dressing. A quick look at the draw and you see a lot of old timers looking for the old spark. Watch them fade in the ensuing days...just happy to be back on the court. The wily veterans know the score. They have been there and done that. Ben and Christopher have a lot to learn. Preparation...preparation...preparation. The mantra.

Novak in the house. How much does he care about this tournament. Depending on the scheduling he make a run for it. Otherwise...he'll count his steps to live to play another day. Slams Baby!